Another Bird
by jclark775
Summary: "Don't try to use me to make yourselves feel better about neglecting him, because I'm not the bird that died that day nor am I going to replace him. Your bird died that day, and I'm the one that rose the next." Season one fic, Wally doesn't know Robin's secret I.D. Zatanna isn't on the team.


**A/N:** I've been on a writing desire lately. This piece just came to me and I felt the need to write it. I'm planning on it being a multi-chapter story.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the characters they belong to DC.

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They were a team. They were a family, but now it didn't feel the same. Their little family had started to fall apart at the seams. It started the day _he_ died – the day their little bird finally fell. He had appeared to be invincible, but once he stopped flying they had found out it wasn't true. He was vulnerable, more vulnerable than any of them. He had been one of the two humans in their family.

None of them realized that their youngest had been their most vulnerable, he had seemed to be the most resilient one on their team. He never showed weakness and always got back up when he was in a fight. He almost had more energy than the team's speedster.

The team didn't realize how easy it was for a normal human to die, until it was too late. The only one that did was the team's other human, Artemis. She knew firsthand how easy it was for a human to die. but the others on the team hadn't realized it. They didn't have the world shattering revelation until after they had lost one of their own.

What made it worse was that they hadn't been there when it happened. They hadn't been able to jump to his rescue. They were told that when he died it was on a mission - he went out alone. Batman had been on his own mission for only two weeks, and Robin was to watch over the city, but he was told to not take any unnecessary risks. The team had known Robin, he wasn't one to take unnecessary risks…. So how did he die then? He was "Robin, 'The Boy Wonder.'" He wasn't supposed to die – he couldn't die! But, then why? Why did he die? No one knew the answer.

That wasn't the worst of it, though, the worst of it was that they hadn't even notice when he died! That ripped them apart inside. It was Black Canary that had informed the team, but even she hadn't known until Batman had told her. The team felt that it was their fault at that point. If they would have been there and helped him out, then maybe he would still be alive today and maybe their little bird would be flying higher than ever before, but this wasn't a videogame. There are no do-overs, no second chances. Nothing that would bring their bird back to life, back to them. It tore their hearts' strings when they thought back on Robin, because they hadn't realized it at the time, but unintentionally they had ostracized him. They excluded him without intending to, and there wasn't a thing that they could do to make amends. When they thought back on it, they realized that before Robin had died the last things that they had said to him had been rather cruel and now they couldn't be taken back. They couldn't forgive and forget like friends do, because he wouldn't be able to forgive them anymore for the cruel things that were said to him.

It had happened subtly and slowly, but the team had sort of left him behind. Having inside jokes with everyone in on it except him, cracking the occasional joke about him, leaving him to go into their own little mini-groups to be off with their significant others. It hadn't crossed their minds that it must've hurt him, as he hadn't been coming to the mountain as often and they couldn't remember him smiling as often after that point nor could they remember in-depth conversations with him or his usual cracking of jokes. They realized that almost whenever the team had gotten together the couples talked solely to each other until the mission started and they arrived at destination. But Robin didn't have a significant other, he wasn't part of a couple. He didn't have anyone on the team to talk with when they were together, because they had been so self-absorbed. That had struck Wally deeply, because he had been Robin's best friend, who had left him behind. These revelations crushed them. They didn't feel worthy to go to his funeral.

Batman was the first in their circle of heroes to have confirmed the death of his partner, but he didn't want to accept it – he couldn't accept it, and he wouldn't accept it! He informed them of what had happened, but he would keep searching for proof that Robin was still alive. He searched for three weeks straight, but he finally had to accept that his little bird wouldn't return.

Bruce was heartbroken, his family shrunk again and this time it was all his fault. His son's death was on his hands. Had he returned sooner then maybe his son would still live.

The bird had fallen in the line of duty. Batman had been informed by Alfred that Robin hadn't returned that night and that there had been a news broadcast of an explosion in the warehouse district, which had led to a fire that set the whole area ablaze. Batman would've returned sooner, but he hadn't been able to and this was the result.

When Batman did return and searched the area he couldn't find much left other than ashes and rubble. He had searched the area until he was familiar with every little rock, pebble and mass of ash, but his efforts were fruitless. Batman had learned that the villain that Robin had been after that night was the Joker, and so he searched for the Joker and he didn't like what he saw when he found him. On Joker's usual suit, right over his heart and sewn into his jacket underneath his flower, was Robin's symbol. His yellow R that was surrounded by the large black circle. It was on the lunatic's jacket, and Batman lost it at that point. He beat the Joker into the ground, and he took back Robin's insignia. After Batman finished, Joker was in a full-body cast for nearly a whole year. Batman had been able to control his rage enough not to kill the man, but that rage was directed at himself and Joker, because to him it was both him and the Joker that clipped his bird's wings and let him fall.

The funeral had happened a week after Batman took the Joker down, because deserved a proper burial, and Bruce had waited long enough to give it to him. Coincidently, Richard Grayson also died within a week of that announcement. At Richard's funeral, there wasn't a dry eye. The team didn't show up to the boy's mourning because Batman didn't tell them, to keep his secret identity intact. Instead, they came for their own midnight mass for the fallen hero, their brother. No one spoke his real name, and all were present. The League, the team and the Bat. Each one paid their respect to the bird. The service was ran by Superman, because it was more up his alley than it was Batman's. It had been a quick service for the bird, done at the same place where Richard's ceremony had happened. That had pieced it together for Artemis, because she was present for Richard's funeral as well. She had finally understood what Richard meant at school when he had said "We'll laugh about this someday" and she agreed that he would have had her. If he would've lived to be an adult and told her about it, then they would've laughed about it. She might've also given him friendly beating for all the trouble he had put her through as Richard, but they would've laughed. It was memories like those that everyone cherished with the bird.

Everyone that was present had talked to his resting place for at least five minutes each so that they could tell him what they wished they would've when he had been alive. It helped to make them ease the pain and once everyone was gone, Batman had taken a longer moment alone with his son's grave. As Bruce, Batman had already spent hours with Richard's grave site, but now it was Batman's turn to pay respect to Robin's grave site. He had stayed there for almost an hour, until he finally had to leave.

It wasn't until after everyone left that one last person entered to pay his respects. The figure was shrouded in a dark robe that covered his face. This person's hood was up, keeping all of his features hidden. The hooded man sat crisscrossed in front of the site.

"You will be missed, Robin." He said as he leaned closer to the grave site "And I'm sure that they know that you miss them too."

The man just sat there for a minute with his eyes closed, thinking of what to say.

"It's an honor to be here with you." The figure finally said, calmly "and I'm sorry you died, but I would like to thank you, because of your death I got to live. You truly are my hero, and I want you to know that."

"You never gave yourself enough rest when you were alive, so now I want you to rest peacefully. Let others continue the job for you." And with that the figure stood, dropped a single flower, for Richard, and a single robin's feather, for Robin, on his grave site and left with the short last words of "Rest in peace" being said as he left.

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**A/N: **Did you all enjoy the chapter? Writing this piece was interesting. Who do you think the robed figure is? I hope that if you enjoyed the chapter that you'll review, because that'll make it easier to write.

The next chapter will have more dialogue than this, I promise.


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